The Wucharia or Wucharia Jackal is an unrecognized canid species or subspecies (Canis aureus lupaster or Canis lupus arabs), reported from the very dry Danakil Depression desert on the coast of Eritrea and Ethiopia in December 2002.
Description
The animal was seen by Mr. Jugal Kishore Tiwari and reported to the Canids SG by Satish Kumar. Some authors suppose that the animals were individuals of the Arabian wolf, an isolated form of the Egyptian jackal, or a totally new species related to both of them.
Survived Xenocyon lycaonoides?
It is possible that the Wucharia Jackal is a surviving Xenocyon lycaonoides, an extinct wolf native to the Ethiopian Highlands. Believed to have become extinct 126,000 years ago, this species preyed on antelope, deer, elephant calves, aurochs cattle, baboons, wild horses and perhaps humans. It was probably the ancestor of the African Wild Dog, and possibly the Dhole of south east Asia, the extinct Sardinian Dhole, and perhaps the extinct Javanese dog.
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